A GRIFTER who tricked people into paying hundreds of pounds for laptop cases full of fizzy drinks has been jailed.

John Maughan’s victims believed they were getting bargain top-of-the-range laptop computers when they struck the deal with the confidence trickster.

But instead the 40-year-old conman switched the laptop cases while his victim’s backs were turned and instead gave them the cases containing bottles of pop, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Operating out of the boot of his Vauxhall car, Maughan and an accomplice did deals on March 11 with two men in central Middlesbrough who handed over £300 and £250 for the bags full of bottles of drink. Jolyon Perks, prosecuting, said: “Both are ashamed and embarrassed by what has happened to them.”

The court was told Maughan was arrested later in the day almost accidentally when he saw a police car and panicked. Mr Perks said PC Julie Bell was travelling in a marked police car along Victoria Street in central Middlesbrough at about 6.45pm where Maughan was attempting a three-point turn.

The officer stopped to allow him to complete the manoeuvre but the worried conman harshly accelerated away leading the officer to put the blue lights on and give chase. The short pursuit around Gresham ended when Maughan crashed his Vauxhall.

“He collided with a telegraph pole in a manner so violent the front of the car was entirely embedded in the telegraph pole and the back of the vehicle was three feet off the floor,” said Mr Perks.

Maughan tried to reverse but was unable to. The officer arrested him at the scene and found the boot of the vehicle full of computer equipment and bottles of pop. His accomplice fled the scene and was never caught.

Maughan, of Carter Street, Acklington, Lancashire, admitted two charges of fraud and one of dangerous driving. His defence barrister, Nigel Soppitt, said: “He accepts everything that has been said about him.” Of the police chase, Mr Soppitt added: “He panicked. He was involved in this scam and he was told to leave the scene promptly.”

Mr Soppitt said Maughan’s offending fed his cocaine habit.

Judge Peter Bowers told the grifter who targeted the Teesside public: “You have done this before and have been warned by the court before and given a chance but you have come back to this part of the country to practice it again and you got caught. It seems to me you have had enough chances in the past.”

The judge jailed Maughan for 15 months and banned him from driving for two years.